CA1238571A - Method of and device for producing bundles from strip and bundle produced thereby - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract of the disclosure To produce bundles from strip, the strip is withdrawn from an uncoiler or coil and slit into a number of narrow strips that are supplied, parallel to one another but separated by about 2 mm or so, to a winding point. The strip is wound at the winding point into bundles. A sheet-like or film-like insert that extends over the total width of the composite bundle of coils is wound in between the individual layers of the bundles. When the resultingly wound strips are unwound, the insert between the bundle at one end of the composite coil and the rest of the composite coil is separated in such a way that a cut-off portion of insert material is removed along with the desired strip material from the composite coil and wound or coiled separately from the desired strip. The composite coil, made up of individual parallel desired strips with the insert wound between them, can be conveniently handled for conveying and storage on either its surface edge or one of its side edges.

Description

- ~3~S7~ 2753~-1 The invention relates to a method o~ producing bundles from strip, in which a strip preferably of metal is withdrawn from an uncoiler and slit lengthwise into a number of narrow strips that are coiled together parallel to one another into bundles. The invention also relates to a bundle produced by the method or with the apparatus of the invention.
Bundles have previously been produced from strip by withdrawing the strip from a reel or coil and then slitting it lengthwise into narrow strips that are coiled together parallel to one another on a powered arbor. The arbor has a number of disks which are mounted on it to keep the individual strips separately so that they can be wound into separate bundles. The bundles must be removed individually from the arbor upon termin-ation of the winding process, bunched together with a strap of sheet metal on a special device, and inally stacked ~or storage.
~ wide range of problems has occurred, particularly with very narrow strips, e.g. from 5 to 17 mm wide. Physical laws limit the diameter of the bundles such that, specifically, a bundle must not be any heavier than 3 kg per mm of strip width. Winding with spacer disks on the arbor, and the result-ing necessity of securing the individual bundles, is expensive because of the manual setup times involved. Breakdowns in hand-ling due to scrap intrusions are frequently unavoidable, mainly because strip escapes from the center of the individual bundles before it has been fastened together. This escaping strip can generally only be employed as scrap and must be cut off. There is also a danger of injuries to personnel who 7~

have to handle the bundles fron~ which some s~rip has escaped. There are problems of storage and conveyance with such strips. Furthermore they may become cambered. Finally, the cut edges of the finished strip can become damaged while it is being conveyed and/or stored.
Attempts have been made to overcome these problems by not slitting the strip of metal completely as it leaves the reel or coil but only doing so partially, so that adjacent strips remain joined at varoius points. These joints are selected in such a way that they can easily be separated when the individual strips are unwound.
Although this method does allow the production of bundles with large bundlc diameters and diminishes the storage and conveyance problems, it has a disadvantage in that the cut edges of the strips are irregular because the points at which the strips are separated when unwound from the coil leave a certain amount of roughness. Strip of this type accordingly often fails to satisfy customer demands.
The object of the present invention is to very economically produce bundles from strip, and especially narrow stripJ from 5 to 17 mm wide, that can be handled and unwound reliably and practically even after finishing, and that contain strip of unobject-ionable quality.
This object is attained in accordnace with the invention inthat completely separated strips are coiled with a sheet-like or film-like inte~nediate layer inserted between, and hence wound along with, the inçliviclual layers of strip, connecting the adjacent bundles togethe.~. :Ln so doing~ t~e indivi.dual strips are preferably wound wit~ a space le~t betwqen them into a composite coil along with the

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intermediate layer.
In accordance with the invention, therefore, a composite coil is procluced that consists of a number of individual ~undles that are connected by means of an insert of paper, plastic sheet, or the like, that extends over the total width of the composite coil and are accordi.ngly secured together. To prevent the individual hundles from being unintentionally unwound, it is only necessary to attach the outermost end of each strip to the bundle. This may be done with a strip of adhesive tape, for example. To unwind the individual bundle it is only necessary to release the outer end of the appropriate strip and unwind it. The remaining bundles of the composite coil remain wound without any special measures having to be taken to secure them. The edges of the individual bundles do not have to be specially protected because the wound-in intermediate layer can extend far enough beyond the sides of the composite coil to prevent the edges of the outermost bundles from getting damaged. ~urthermore, the intermediate layer keeps the bundles of the coil far enough apart to prevent damage from contact between adjacent strips.
The invention allows the production o composite coils that are heavier and can accordingly have a larger diameter. Weights of up to 10 kg per mm of width a:re possible, as compared to 3 kg per mm with prior art procedures. Thus, bundles weighing up to 1000 kg, for example, have been obtained in accordance with the invention.
A composite coil can include 20 kundlos for example, and that at an outside d.~meter ~f u~ t~ 1300 mm and :inside diameters o 300, ~00, or 50Q mm~ A compos;i:te cQil can havq a maximum width of up to 1500 mm ''~ -3-~ .

~3~S7~ 27534-1 or more, since it i8 not limited by the length oE the arbor available for winding.
The composite coil produced in accordance with the invention can be removed from the arbor as a single unit and conveyed and stored in that form. The individual bundles can be uncoiled placing the whole composite coil on an uncoiler and rotating it in the unwinding direction. All the strips do not need to be uncoiled simultaneously. Although heavy weights have to be shifted in doing so, uncoiling is more economical on the whole because the composite coil has to be placed on the coiler only once, subsequent to which it is unnecessary to remove several strips from the individual bundles before they can be uncoiled. It is, rather, sufficient to unfasten the outer end of the particular bundle before unwinding.
The intermediate layer inserted during winding is preferably separated by layers between the adjacent bundles while the individual bundles are being unwound or uncoiled in s,uch a way that the intermediate layer will extend beyond the ends of the rest of the composite coil just enough to ensure the desired edge protection. The separated strips of the intermed-iate layer are coiled up in a practical way during the unwinding process and can be discarded.
The product oE the invention may be generally defined as a composite bundle obtained from a strip, the composite bundle having several adjacent bundles made out of strip with a space between them. A continuous insert in the form of a web of ~, -4-.

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a separable mat~rial (such as paper or plastic sheet) is located between each layer of strip to hold the separate bundles together and provide a short extension on each side of the com-posite bundle to protect the longitudinal edges of the strip against any kind of damage.
The adjacent bundles of strip are preferably about 2 mm apart. This is enough to guarantee that the edges of the strip bundles will be protected.
Since no metallic strapping is necessary to hold the coil rings or bundles together, no depressions will be left on the edges of the strip by the strapping. The individual strips are well protected against cambering because the paper or plastic-sheet insert between the individual turns prevents cut-ting burrs in the strip from accumulating from turn to turn and even compensates for them. Since the invention allows the coil diameters to be as large as desired, even when the strip is less than 10 mm wide, the bundles can weigh three times as .~

much as previously. Thus strip three times as long as previously can be bundled. No troublesome manual threading of individual strips or insertion of separating disks between the individual strips is necessary because operations can he carried out without separating disks or sheets and all parallel strips can be threaded into the un-coiler in a single operation no matter how many strips are to be unwound simultaneously.
A composite coil produced in accordance with the inventi.on, which, like a kind of magazine, contains many bundles, is highly superior to the conventional separately wound bundle strip coils with respect to conveyance because the individual strips in a composite coil are secured by the insert of paper or plastic sheet, constituting a more reliable conveyance unit. There are no problems in storing and stacking such a unit. The operator can raise 60 times as much material onto his uncoiler with a single lift. Manual setup times are extensively avoided because one composite coil can accommodate up to three times as much strip length and can contain up to 20 adjacent bundles.
The operator can interrupt separating, unrolling one of the 2Q bundles, that is, at any time, even in the middle of unwinding a bundle, so that the rest can conven:iently be returnecl to storage.
Another aclvantage o:E using inserts in accordance with the inventioll is that they well protect the surfacc of the strip from mechcrLnical ~lestructioJI. Tllis is particularly significant when the str:il~ nlate~ial is. o;~ ;Eragi.le natu~e.
Introducing the ~nsert a~oids the prior aTt expense of ~6~

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mechanlcally wrapping the individual ~undles while they are being pac~aged. Ilandling one composite coil is also much safer than handling several narrow bundles.
An emhodiment of an uncoiling apparatus that can be employed to unwind a composite coil which has been made in accordance with the invention, specifically bundle by hundle, will now be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings, in which:~
Figure 1 is a side view of the uncoiling apparatus; and Figure 2 is a front view of the apparatus of Figure 1.
The uncoiling device has a housing 2 attached to a base plate 1. An arbor 3 is rotatably mounted in housing 2. A coiling mechanism 4 is provided with a rotating shaft 5 which can be employed to wind a strip 6 of paper or plastic sheet separated from the insert in the bundle is also mounted on base plate 1.
A composite coil 7 mounted on the arbor 3 of the uncoiler in such a way that it cannot rotate with respect to the arbor. Composite coil 7 consists of a number oE bundles 8, usually, but not necessarily, of metal strip, connected by an insert 9 made out of paper, plastic sheet, or a similar material. Insert 9 has aeen introduced between the individual turns of strip ancl extends over the total length of composite coil 7. Insert Y preEerably extcnds somewhat beyond the sides o composite coil 7 to protect the lateral edges of metal strip 10 (at the sides of the composite coil) from damage. (The prajecting sections oE insert ~ are not shown in Figure 2.) ~s~ will be qvidqn~ from Figure 2~ a certain amount of space, which ma~ measure 2 mm~ ;Eor exampleJ is left between each of the ~7~

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adjacent bundles 8 held together by insert 9. This prevents adjacent strips from touching and damaging one another.
A ripping knife 11 that pivots around a shaft 12 is associated with arbor 3. When the foremost bundle 8a is being unwound, ripping knife 11 cuts the insert 9 between that bundle and the next bundle 8 in such a way that a strip 6 cut off insert 9 leaves the coil and can be wound on coiling mechanism 4. Ripping knife 11 is pivotable on shaft 12 so that it can follow the decreasing outside diameter of foremost bundle 8a and can separate insert 9 until the metal strip 10 has completely left foremost bundle 8a.
~letal strip 10 travels beneath a loop controller 13 as it leaves foremost bundle 8a en route to a consuming device that is not illustrated.
To keep foremost bundle 8a correctly positioned with respect to ripping knife 11, the uncoiling device has a synchronized plate-shaped position shifter 1~ which is controlled by a generator 15 and pulse conductor 16 and can be shifted toward the free end of arbor 3 in order to maintain composite coil 7 in the desired operating position whenever one of the separate bundles 8 has been completely unwound. A plunger 17 and guide 18 ensure straight-line motion on the part of the plate-shaped position shiEter 1~.
It is to be unclerstood that strip which can be slit and wound into separate bundles can be made wholly or partlally oE any Elexible windable material, Eor example metal, plastic or rubber. In general the process and apparatus oE the inverltion are applicable to all materials which heretofore have beon wouncl.

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Claims (10)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A method for producing bundles from strip, in which a strip is withdrawn from an uncoiler and slit lengthwise into a number of narrow strips that are coiled together parallel to one another into bundles, characterized in that the strips are coiled with a sheet-like intermediate layer inserted between the individual layers of strip, said intermediate layer connecting the adjacent bundles together.

2. A method as defined in Claim 1, characterized in that the individual bundles of strip are wound along with the inter-mediate layer into a composite coil, a space being left between each adjacent pair of bundles of strip.

3. A method as defined in Claim 1, characterized in that the intermediate layer is separated layer by layer between the adjacent bundles.

4. A method as defined in Claim 1, or 2, or 3, wherein the strip is formed of metal.

5. A method as defined in Claim 1, or 2, or 3, wherein the strip is formed of plastic.

6. A method as defined in Claim 1, or 2, or 3, wherein the strip is formed of rubber.

7. A composite bundle obtained from strip by the method defined in Claim 1, characterized in that it has several adjacent bundles made out of strip with a space between each pair of bundles and a continuous insert in the form of a web of a separable material between each layer.

8. A composite bundle as defined in Claim 7, character-ized in that the insert extends outwardly beyond each outer bundle in the composite bundle.

9. A composite bundle as defined in Claim 7, or 8, wherein the separable material is paper.

10. A composite bundle as defined in Claim 7, or 8, wherein the separable material is a plastic sheet.